The federal government is withdrawing proposed rules that would have required more ships to slow down in East Coast waters to try to save a vanishing species of whale.

MAINE, USA — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has withdrawn a proposed regulation intended to protect the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale from vessel strikes. The decision has left conservationists and Maine’s lobster industry expressing disappointment, though for different reasons.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) Lobster Board previously delayed a proposed gauge size increase – which would increase the legal minimum size of a lobster by one-sixteenth of an inch.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Fishing regulators on Friday scrapped a plan for stricter fishing rules amid concerns about a decline in baby lobsters in the warming waters off New England. The ...